When the top law enforcement officers from half of the United States band together to make their voices known on an important topic, it’s kind of a big deal.
Recently, attorneys general from 25 states filed an amicus brief against California’s unconstitutional law banning standard-capacity firearms magazines that are capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. According to a news release issued by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, the coalition of AGs filed the brief in Duncan v. Bonta to “safeguard law-abiding individuals’ right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense against unnecessary intrusions.”
“In this case, that unnecessary intrusion is a California law banning firearm magazines that can hold more than ten rounds,” the release stated.
In the brief, the AGs are asking that Judge Roger Benitez’s earlier ruling that the law is unconstitutional be upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The district court properly concluded that California’s law unconstitutionally restricts the fundamental right to keep and bear common firearm magazines typically possessed for lawful purposes,” the AGs stated in the brief. “This Court should follow the Supreme Court’s mandate from Heller, McDonald and Bruen by affirming the district court based on the text, history and tradition associated with the Second Amendment and magazines with a capacity over 10 rounds.”
At the time of that district court decision, Judge Benitez explained in his ruling: “Both as a matter of modern statistics and historical analogy, large-capacity magazines and their analogues are in common use today and were at the time of the Second Amendment’s incorporation. While estimates vary, it is undisputed that more than 100 million large-capacity magazines circulate in the United States. One recent study cited by the district court found that Americans own 542 million magazines that hold more than 10 rounds today.”
In addition to Knudsen, those filing the brief included AGs from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
